Letter home

Dear Mother,

I have arrived safely here on the front line. I am not entirely sure where I am but I know that we are 100 yards away from the German front line, its frightfully exciting but surprisingly quiet. I expected it to be loud all time time, yet for some reason its quite. Someone explained that there isn't fighting all the time, most of it involves waiting, waiting for someone to make a move or do something, from either side.

We are given the luxury of whisky here, washed down with a bit of disinfected water its not at all bad, it takes away the taste of water and the water takes away the taste of whisky. It also helps take our mind of things, its a good way to distract us. We also have a chef; of course the food isn't as good as yours but it's not half bad for trench food, we had soup, meat and apricots for dinner. We also get a endless supply of cigarettes, don't worry I'm not smoking too much but it's a nice treat and makes us feel good and warm inside which is a lovely feeling to have since it gets so cold.

I have to say it's extremely wet, I don't think I'll manage to get dry feet all week, but it's fine because we're not here for that long. One of the men worked out that it's only 144 hours till we get 12 days leave, and he's decided he's going to draw a circle for every hour, and every hour he's going to colour in a circle to make the time go faster. I think it's an excellent idea and makes it all a jolly game.

The rats are so horrid however, they recon there are thousands, of course we don't see them all but we have to be careful that when we're sleeping they don't gnaw into our boots. That would be frightfully bad luck to have a hole in our boots when its this wet. Its also awfully dirty - I'll be needing a bath at the end of my six days that's for sure.

Since I'm the least important, you could say, I get the last bed. Some say it's the worst, but I don't think so. Its fine, but its quite funny because I have to hang my arms and legs off the bed for fear of falling in, but we get a blanket which is lovely. Imagine not changing your clothes for six whole days?! I'll get comfy in them that's for sure.

How is everyone at home? It's such good news that I'm allowed to write every day, so I can keep you posted on everything I'm doing and you can let me know what's going on at home. How's Margret? Send her my love. I miss everyone dearly but its exciting being out here, actually getting out here on the front line and fighting. Doing our bit for our country.

Sending love to all,

Your darling son xxx